Top diplomat outlines Russian frustration

Russia is always painted as the bad guy, its ambassador to Austria insisted in an interview with RT

The West is happy to back Kiev militarily and politically without regard for the consequences, and will always act as if Russia is in the wrong, Moscow’s ambassador to Austria has claimed.

In an exclusive interview with RT this week, Dmitry Lyubinsky said that despite intense diplomatic work between Russia and Western nations, his counterparts always present a united front of support for Ukraine in public. “Naturally, we are in close contact with our partners in the Austrian Foreign Ministry, and we are meeting in person as far as it is possible,” he explained. “But when the politicians get in front of the cameras, we hear only one side of the story.”

The diplomat insisted that the West is sending military aid to Ukraine without considering what this could lead to. “Right now they are burying Ukraine in tons of different weapons,” he said. “American planes are flying from different countries. When you ask, are you sure about who will be in control of this weaponry and its deployment? – you get no answer.”

Lyubinsky went on to warn that this could lead the Ukrainian government to interpret the West’s support as “total approval, carte blanche on any provocations. No matter what Kiev does, it will, of course, still be Russia’s fault a priori. But how much do the politicians responsible understand these moments? To what extent, in the end, are they talking with Kiev and voicing the idea that the responsibility for fulfilling the Minsk agreements lies with the Kiev authorities? Because nothing has happened for years, and ordinary people are suffering.”

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The Minsk agreements were signed in 2014 and 2015 by Russia, Ukraine, and the intergovernmental organization OSCE, and were meant to resolve the conflict taking place in Ukraine’s Donbass region. In 2014, after the former Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted from office during mass street protests, separatists in the country’s east declared two breakaway republics and have been fighting a civil war ever since.

Kiev has accused Russia of supporting the rebels and fueling the conflict, which Moscow denies, saying it does not recognize them as legitimate states. The Minsk agreements have yet to be put into effect, and Russia has said that Ukraine failed to uphold its side of the bargain by refusing to negotiate with the separatists.

On Thursday, representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France met in Berlin for talks meant to find a solution to the Donbass conflict. Dmitry Kozak, the Kremlin’s envoy at the meeting, told journalists that the nine-hour long discussion had concluded “with no visible, tangible results expressed in writing.”